


Girl Power

by violet_quill



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-28
Updated: 2010-11-28
Packaged: 2017-10-13 10:42:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/136437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violet_quill/pseuds/violet_quill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Doctor regenerates, his companions react to the new him. (Alternate ending to Season 4.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girl Power

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place immediately following "Stolen Earth" and went a whole week before being horribly jossed!

After this long with the Doctor, Donna was no longer surprised to see things go to absolute shit incredibly quickly. But she was pretty sure that she hadn't yet seen things go to _this_ much shit _this_ quickly.

"What's _that_? Is he glowing? Why's he _glowing_?" Not that anyone was paying attention to her anymore, not with Rose the Prodigal Blonde returned and Jack the bloody soap star with his big smile and his big guns.

"Here we go!" Jack suddenly rushed forward and pulled Rose away from where she was cradling the Doctor's limp body. "Good luck, Doctor!"

Donna couldn't take it anymore. "Would someone please tell me what is going on!" Jack and Rose both kind of blinked at her as if they'd forgotten she was there. She opened her mouth to snap, _yes, me, remember me? What did you think I was, the tea girl?_ But before she could, all of their attention diverted to the Doctor, who was dragging himself up by the Console.

"He's - he's regenerating," Rose explained, obviously close to tears. "When he's dying, his body repairs itself. He - he changes - " She jerked her head back to the Doctor. "But you can't!" she sobbed.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor gasped out. "It's too late. I - " He straightened and his head snapped up. "I'm regenerating."

Suddenly a burst of gold light seemed to envelope his entire body, and Donna had to avert her eyes from the brightness. She felt Jack slip an arm around her - well, hello, strong arms, that one. The Doctor could take a cue from him, maybe try beefing up a little… oh, the _Doctor_. Donna could feel tears stinging behind her eyes as she tried to look at him - what did Rose mean, he _changes_? Was he dying? He couldn't die, he was too bloody stubborn and important to die! "Doctor!" she cried, and felt Jack grip her tighter.

And then the light receded, and Donna felt her eyes adjust to the sudden dimness of the TARDIS as she looked over to where the Doctor had been.

She stared. "…what?"

She glanced at Jack, whose eyes were wide and confused. "What - " he repeated, in a way that suggested if he could have come up with the appropriate ones that word would have been followed by a string of expletives.

"What!" Rose cried, obviously hysterical.

And the Doctor… well, what Donna assumed was the Doctor… just sounded confused. "What?" Of course, then the voice coming out seemed to make matters worse, and the Doctor repeated the word, flatly and in a slightly lower pitch. " _What_."

"Oh my god, you're a _woman_!" Donna blurted. Then she turned to Jack and Rose, as if maybe they hadn't noticed. "He's a woman!"

"Yeah, I think we got that part," Jack said.

The Doctor for his - _her_ part - still looked pretty shell-shocked, not to mention rather silly standing there in a suit that didn't fit in all kinds of fun ways. The trouser legs hung down over her shoes, as she was obviously a good four or five inches shorter, and the sleeves hung just past her fingers. Meanwhile, two of the buttons on the coat looked just about ready to pop over a set of respectable sized breasts, and the trousers were obviously tugging a little at her hips.

Despite the strangeness of the situation, Donna couldn't help but be a little pleased that now he knew what it was like to have hips. She'd always told him he was way too skinny.

"I am not supposed to be a woman," the Doctor said matter-of-factly, in a voice that sounded just about right coming from that body, not too high, not too low, and an accent not all that dissimilar from the previous one, perhaps a touch more Northern.

"You can't be!" Rose shrieked, and Donna turned to realize that whereas she and Jack mostly seemed shocked, the other woman was on the verge of hysterics. "Bring him back! I want him _back_!"

The look on Rose's face, it was… well. It was like if she'd spent years and years as a small child asking for doll for Christmas and finally woke up one Christmas morning and there it was under the tree. Only instead of letting her play with it, someone just hit her over the head with it. Repeatedly.

Yeah, that was kind of how she looked.

Jack was clinging to her, keeping her from… well, Donna wasn't sure what she was going to do, maybe run up and start punching the new lady Doctor in the face, or worse yet, throw herself outside in front of the Daleks.

"I loved him!" she sobbed, burying her face in Jack's chest. "I came all this way…"

Donna, not really knowing what to do about all that, took a step away from the pair of them and towards the Doctor, who had sagged against the Console looking lost.

"Is it really you?" Donna asked, reaching out to brush her hand against the woman's face. It was a nice face, she thought. Older than the Doctor had been, probably closer to Donna's own age, perhaps a few years older even. Her hair fell in a shaggy bob to her chin, dark auburn with just the barest hint of grey (she could teach him how to fix that, no problem), and eyes that looked nearly the same as before… dark and deep as the end of time.

"It's really me," she sighed. "This has never happened to me before. I mean, I knew that it _could_ , it just never has, not in ten… oh, Rose." She looked over Donna's shoulder at Jack and Rose. "I'm so sorry. I hate that this happened to you again…" A sheepish smile touched her lips. "But I'm still the same person, remember? I mean, remember how much you hated it when I changed last time? And you got used to that pretty quickly!"

Rose lifted her head and looked at the Doctor as if she'd grown two heads instead of a pair of tits. "At least you still had all your… your _bits_!"

The Doctor cleared her throat, looking equal parts embarrassed and offended. "Well I still have bits. They're just… different ones." She moved her body a little, shaking it out. "This _is_ going to take some getting used to." Suddenly, her eyes lit up just a little. "Am I ginger? I might be happier if I'm ginger!"

Rose looked like she wanted to kill something. Donna was suddenly very glad that Jack was standing between her and that giant gun.

"You're kind of… auburn, actually," Donna offered helpfully. "Not quite so ginger as me, but it's a lovely colour. You're quite fetching, actually. Isn't she fetching, Jack?"

A wide smile spread across Jack's lips. "Oh, she's fetching all right." Rose elbowed him in the ribs so hard that he said, "Oof!"

And the Doctor's cheeks reddened and she muttered, "Don't you start, Jack."

"What!" Jack blurted defensively. "A guy can't feel lucky, being stuck in here with three beautiful women? Besides, it's not like he wasn't hot before."

"He was too skinny," Donna protested.

"But he had great hair," Rose sighed dejectedly.

"Yeah, he did have great hair," Jack agreed, and Donna nodded.

"Would the three of you just shut up!" the Doctor snapped.

"… yup," Jack said. "Still the Doctor."

The Doctor tried to take a step forward but tripped on her trousers and ended up in an undignified heap by the Console. But she pulled herself up quickly. "All right, I'm all right!"

They were suddenly all standing closer to her, and there was a good thirty seconds of awkward silence.

"Would you all please stop staring at my tits!" the Doctor shouted.

Donna's head snapped away, followed by the others'. Well, Jack was still sort of peeking out of one corner of his eye.

"Okay," the Doctor said, "I'll be right back. I need to put on some clothes that fit. When I get back, we're going to figure this thing out. Because I seem to recall that there's an _army of bloody Daleks_ just outside and somehow I don't think they care what bits I have!" And then she stomped off, careful of her trailing trouser legs, leaving the three of them behind.

"Well, that was unexpected," said Jack.

"This was so much worse than the first time," Rose sighed. "How do you like that timing, huh? I come back for him, ready to tell him how I feel…"

"For god's sake, does _everyone_ fall in love with him?" Donna blurted. "I mean, really. You're all nutters if you ask me."

Jack smirked a little at that. "I like you, Donna Noble."

She regarded him warily. "Don't you get any cheeky ideas." She wagged a finger at him. "I know your type, gorgeous. You're like the sample designer gown at the dress shop. The one they eventually sell for half price, which seems like an incredible deal on Armani, until you realize how many people have been trying it on. Just don't know where that thing's been."

Jack opened his mouth to protest, but the Doctor emerged from the back of the TARDIS, diverting their attention again. She'd shed the ill-fitting suit and was wearing a pair of dark denim jeans, a white button-down shirt that seemed slightly too big, and a dark purple pea coat. And the same sort of shoes she'd been wearing before - Converse, but black ones. Donna didn’t blame her; this probably wasn't the time to figure out how to get around in heels.

"Okay," she said, and had that air of authority in her voice that made Donna immediately realize that it didn't matter _what_ the Doctor looked like, not at all. "Here's the thing. There's a war out there. Davros is back, there's an army of Daleks exterminating the human race, and there is _no time_ for me to figure out what kind of man - sorry, what kind of woman - I am right now. So whether I'm ginger, or bitchy, or matronly, or - " She glanced at Rose. "- a lesbian, it's really not going to matter if we die in the next five minutes. So what do you say we put that all on hold for now and see about saving the world?"

Trying to be helpful, Donna pumped her fist into the air. "Girl power!"

The Doctor looked thoughtful for a second and then said, "… and, nope, not the kind of woman who likes the Spice Girls. That's one thing down. Let's go."

Donna watched the Doctor say something quietly in Rose's ear as she passed, and whereas Rose still didn't seem entirely happy, she looked a little better.

As Jack exited the TARDIS, he slapped the Doctor on the ass. The Doctor swiftly kneed him in the balls.

Donna had a feeling that she was going to enjoy finding out what kind of woman the Doctor was.


End file.
